By The Milwaukee Industrial Workers of the World General Defense Committee Local 19 - It's Going Down, September 11, 2017

When the Milwaukee IWW General Defense Committee heard that Act for America was scheduled to have a rally in Milwaukee we immediately began organizing to oppose it with the goal of shutting it down completely. ACT for America is an organization that stokes fear and hatred of immigrants and Muslims to lobby for heightened national security. We spoke with Twin Cities General Defense Committee members who had opposed ACT for America in the streets previously. They told us that ACT for America drew Islamophobes and Trump supporters, with some Alt Right fascists thrown in the mix at a rally in St. Paul.

We knew we couldn’t let this organization take the streets of our city, so we organized logistics, started doing turn out and made a plan. ACT for America had scheduled their rally for 8 a.m. at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Milwaukee, so that’s where we would go. In the past several weeks debates on antifascism have erupted all over the country. Some suggest we ignore them, some suggest we hold rallies on the other side of town, but we believe that we must go where they go. We must always confront them with the goal of allowing no platform for racism and fascism. Shortly after masses of people in Boston smashed a fascist march, ACT for America canceled their rallies all over the country. Some questioned if we should bother turning out at all, but we felt we had to make good on our commitments and send a message to the far right that they would be opposed at every turn. We also knew there was a possibility that some rightists would turn out anyway.

We set two rendezvous points, one in front of the courthouse and the other two blocks away, so we could engineer a coordinated confrontation with the right if needed.But the right didn’t really show. As we gathered and began to march, a few right wing goons heckled us, but then quickly scuttled away. They must have turned up to assessthe scene. Across from the courthouse approximatelysixty people gathered as we heard from speakers on the importance of solidarity, the struggle living as an immigrant in America and the vile racism of our society. Speakers called for unity with oppressed groups and the importance of working class organization. A General Defense Committee member said, “ACT for America has tremendous influence not only over the average person where they can play on fears, but over the State as well. But appealing to representatives is a dead end; a fruitless act. We have to use collective action in our communities to build the power we need to stop this threat.”

As we build our organization we navigate a difficult path. We know that there must be mass opposition to fascism and racism in order for it to be combated, but we have to do what is necessary to no platform the far right. It’s a path worth navigating in order to build a mass organization that can utilize direct action.

Every day on the shop floor, in the school, and in the neighborhood, we must build working class self-organization. We have to have conversations about who is really responsible for the outsourced jobs at huge old Milwaukee plants like Allis Chalmers and Tower Automotive and who is responsible for the cuts to education, public service, food share, and transportation. The rich are the ones who suck the blood of our class. If we don’t have those conversations the right wing will.

On Saturday August 12th, white nationalists converged on the city of Charlottesville, Virginia to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee and the renaming of Lee Park to Emancipation Park. The fascists were outnumbered by antifascists and were driven from the park, but not without great cost, as we all know. On that day a fascist drove his car at high speed into the antifascist demonstration, injuring over 20 people and killing one, a 32 year old paralegal named Heather Heyer.

In Milwaukee we had been communicating with people in Charlottesville since Friday night. A friend said he worried someone from our side would be killed. To our horror this came to be true. The event gripped the country, and people were called to the streets to condemn the rising tide of fascism and racism, and in remembrance of the brave antifascist Heather Heyer.

As news of Heather’s death spread on Saturday afternoon, we called for an emergency meeting that night in a park in the Riverwest neighborhood. Around 30 people came together to discuss how to respond to the attack in Charlottesville and move forward. The assembly agreed to call for a vigil the next day at 7:00 PM in the same park, rather than downtown.

Mass demonstrations against Trump and other targets are typically held in Milwaukee’s downtown area in the evenings. We decided that since few people live downtown, and that the downtown area is not a working class neighborhood, we should instead hold the vigil where we stood, in the heart of Riverwest. There was some consideration of stepping outside of the comfort zone of a friendly neighborhood, but ultimately the group determined that for this demonstration, we should organize where we have a base. It was this decision which helped ensure a large turnout of working class people.

We went about doing the work to make the vigil happen. We gathered literature for tabling, collected our megaphones, banners, and flags. Artists provided sign making materials for people to make their own signs as the vigil was getting underway. We edited our General Defense Committee outreach flier to announce a follow up meeting, and quickly found space to host it. Organizers put together a speakers list and made sure to raise the voices of our comrades of color and women members. Members even put together a screen printing table in the park with a “Good Night Far Right” image. Allied organizations turned out their members and provided support. We made sure to have marshals wearing identifiable vests who knew how to handle themselves in the street. The marshals were tasked with managing traffic and ensuring the march proceeded slowly so everyone could stay together as a group. An experienced member crafted a media advisory and called all the major media outlets in town.

On Sunday night as 7:00 neared, people poured into the small park. Speakers opened with a moment of silence for Heather Heyer and emphasized the importance of the broader struggle. We spoke of the need to support the fights against deportations, the police, racism, and white supremacy, and the importance of organizing the working class. The crowd had swelled to around 400 people by the time the last speaker finished.

After the speeches, people then flooded into the streets to march through the neighborhood. Chants of “No Nazis, No KKK, No Fascist USA” reverberated off the polish flats and duplexes of Riverwest. We headed down a side street and people came out of their houses to join in and cheer us on. Families waved and cheered from their porches, joining us in the chants even if they didn’t join the march. A sea of people waved red and black flags, IWW flags, and antifascist flags. The march was led by two black IWW banners, one reading “Direct Action Gets the Goods” and another for the General Defense Committee that reads “Defend the Union, the Community, the Working Class.”

The march rounded the corner onto a major through street and paused in front of a popular local coffee shop to allow the march to tighten up, but it still filled an entire city block. The strength and power of our community was undeniable. The police looked on from a distance, a police liaison approached. They simply gave thumbs up and didn’t even attempt to control the demonstration. We turned another corner and marched back up another side street chanting “Say it Loud, Say it Clear, Refugees are Welcome Here.” As we rounded the final block and poured back into the park our numbers had grown to over 500 people.

After the demonstration we stuck around to clean up the park and retired to our favorite bar to hang out, decompress, debrief and plan next steps. We also set about planning our next General Defense Committee meeting which was looking like it was going to be well attended. The next day we spoke with Wisconsin Public Radio about the mass demonstrations taking place all over the country and the rise of the alt right. We shared our vision of a mass anti-fascist and anti-racist working class movement with a statewide radio network that reaches millions of listeners.

In the lead up to the Wednesday GDC meeting we made sure to have a tight well-organized program and spent two hours making an agenda the night before. Wednesday rolled around and the librarians at the branch we decided to host our meeting at seemed a bit on edge. We reassured them that we are on the side of justice, and ultimately they were supportive. Nearly 100 people showed up to the meeting, most of them folks who were new to the IWW and GDC. It was a challenge to make sure each person’s voice was heard, but everyone who wanted to speak had a chance. Here is a rough outline of the agenda.

On August 5th a 6k run was held in remembrance of the attack on the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek. Six victims were killed on August 5th 2012, Paramjit Kaur, Satwant Singh Kaleka, Prakash Singh, Sita Singh, Ranjit Singh, and Suveg Singh. The shooter was a neo-Nazi named Wade Michael Page living in Cudahy, south of Milwaukee. He was a member of the Hammerskins, a notorious Neo-Nazi Skinhead Gang.

Every August 5th the community remembers those lost. The event focused on a spirit of resilience in the face of tragedy. A dozen members of the IWW joined our fellow worker Jesse, who worships at the temple, to promote the General Defense Committee (GDC) and stand in solidarity with the Sikh community. We participated in the run, tabled with literature, and handed out around 250 fliers.

Text from Outreach Flyer by Jesse:

On the Morning of August 5, 2012, I was getting ready for work like I did every other Sunday. For some strange reason, I decided to channel surf until I was stopped by breaking news about a shooting at a temple. When I learned it was my own temple, I started to cry hysterically – for the victims, for my community, and in terror of thinking it could have been me if I wasn’t working that day. The following weeks were spent in fear of going into public places and full of hate for anyone that looked like Wade Michael Page, the shooter. I became physically exhausted and I finally had to surrender.

Eventually time has healed. Things have returned to normal but I still live in the shadow of that day especially when it comes to verbal abuse by the public. Instead of swelling up with fear or hatred I decided to become an educator about my religion to dispel ignorance. But since the election we have seen a new trend in violence against racial and religious minorities and the LGBT community. The things that I thought I was working to eradicate have seemingly exploded across the country and it will only get worse with further impending economic crisis. I learned that Facebook posts about working on my inner dealings and educating people isn’t enough to fight this growing problem we see before us.

The only solution is a working relationship with a community of self-defense and working-class power. It’s clear we can’t look towards politicians to solve society’s woes. It is imperative to get active and build the society we wish to see and it starts with organizing the workplace and for community self-defense. We have to learn to see ourselves in others who are targeted by discrimination and injustice because an injury to one is an injury to all.

Other Side Of Flyer on GDC:

The General Defense Committee (GDC) is the community self-defense arm of our grassroots labor union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

The IWW is a democratically run union for all workers that believes we can use collective action to improve our working conditions and our lives. The General Defense Committee takes these principles and applies them to organizing in defense of our communities, especially in support of targeted groups such as immigrants, racial and religious minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community.

The General Defense Committee believes we must not only reject and condemn hate speech, but that we must unite and put forward a vision of equality, solidarity, and collective action.

Since our formation the General Defense Committee has acted in solidarity with victims of police violence, staged positive counter-demonstrations when hate groups have threatened to march in our communities, provided marshals for rallies in support of immigrant justice and trained our members in physical self-defense. We work to educate, support, and defend our community.

We hope to continue this type of work and invite all who share our values to join us.

It is important for us anarchists, socialists, and antifascists to offer our solidarity to a broad range of people. We have to step outside of our comfort zones in radical scenes, in subcultures, and activist circles. We must go to our class, the working class and stand with groups baring the brunt of racism and hate.

This is a newsletter for people incarcerated in Wisconsin, based as much as possible on what they are saying. It is edited and printed by the Milwaukee branch of the Industrial Workers of the World, (IWW) Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC). Please write us back if you have updates you’d like to give to people on the inside and the outside. The more that people talk together the less isolated we are. We are in contact with networks of prisoners in areas inside and outside of Wisconsin, and can help build connections. Let us know if there are other people inside jails and prisons that we should contact.

Baseball is about statistics--lots of them. Here are a few you may want to keep in mind the next time the Brew Crew's Geoff Jenkins or Brady Clark hits one out of the park.

Baseballs used in the major leagues are hand sewn at a factory in Turrialba, Costa Rica, run by Rawlings Sporting Goods. Workers at the factory make roughly four baseballs per hour, which requires about one stitch every 8.3 seconds, or 4,536 stitches in a 10.5-hour shift.

The Costa Rican workers are paid about 28 cents per ball, for an annual wage of less than $3,000 a year, which barely brings them above the country's poverty level.

In 2005, the average salary for a Major League Baseball (MLB) player was $2,632,655, according to Baseball Almanac. There are 162 regular season games, for a per game average of $16,250.